[Samba] Samba bidirectional printing support

Viktor Remennik vik at etogo.net
Tue Feb 1 19:18:20 GMT 2005


Paul Gienger wrote:

>
>> trying to install Canon s900 printer but canon printer monitor on win 
>> PC is not working saying there's no bidirectional connection between win
>
>
> That is probably the Canon app not wanting to work with a networked 
> printer.  Those style apps are designed to work on a local machine 
> with a local printer.  You could try to create a virtual LPR port and 
> set the server to print in raw mode, but that probably won't get you 
> over the hump.


I don't think so. Actualy there are two kind of tools. First is really 
working with local port. But I'm talking about win32 driver. Under win32 
(windows xp sp2) the driver is able to show when there's no ink in the 
network printer. but with samba shared printer win32 driver claims that 
bidirectional mode is unavailable and "Enable bidirectional support" 
checkbox in printer properties is disabled gray. Is it possible to let 
it alert me when ink is out?

>
>> So, am i right that it is impossible to use modern printers via samba?
>
>
> No, you're wrong.  It may be very difficult or impossible to use 
> printers whose driver writers expect that printer to be attached to 
> USB or parallel ports and cannot function over the network, but this 
> will only hinder the advanced properties, perhaps such as ink sensing 
> and what not.  Pull virtually any network aware printer off of the 
> shelf today, install the drivers on your server and client and you'll 
> be just fine.  Naturally this works better if the printer talks 
> PostScript or any open printing language, but even without, many 
> companies make valid unix drivers for network printers.


But under win32 it works via smb net! Maybe the problem is in the samba 
configuration?



-- 
Kind regards,
Viktor Remennik




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